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A " DUNk" for Japanese Beetles!!!

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 1:13 am

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There are many uses for vinegar these days, from gargling your throat ( UGH!!)
to drinking for stomach problems.

As I love roses, these beetles can be a real menace to them as well as corn and raspberries etc. For short-term control, hand picking is the safest and most effective measure. ( I hate doing that!)
To make this rotten job easier, place cans of vinegar solution ( equal parts apple cider vinegar and water ) next to vulnerable plants.

Early and late in the day, when beetles are not at their best, hold the can under them, and knock the beetles into the solution. Vinegar kills them quickly and is not harmful to pets or children.

You can leave the can in place until it's full, and then empty dead bugs into the compost pile, and refill the cans.

Over time this method does reduce their population, significantly.

Trouble with cut worms??

Clear plastic 12 ounce water or soda bottles make great cutworm barriers.
Slice the bottles into 3 inch high rings, then press them into the soil,( about 1 inch deep) and put them over newly planted seedlings.

Tool Caddy??

I strap on a carpenter's tool belt, with my garden trowel, pruners etc and I am all set for the day!!

"Mrs G"

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My "pet" inspiration.

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:15 am

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I had a cat for many years who became my faithful companion. Unfortunately, he passed away after 18 years, and I was devastated.


I vowed that I would never have another cat, as I did not want to go through the emptiness that his loss created.



One day my friend came to call, she raises Himalayan cats, and after we got chatting she mentioned that she was trying to find a home for a one year old male. I was surprised, as she never has problems selling her kittens and I asked why this one was still with her.

She then proceeded to tell me that he was blind, had been since birth, but she couldn't have him put down. Now, this was meant to get my sympathy, which of course it did! I heard myself say "Well I could come and see him?" only to find that he was in her car! Oh, how well she knew me!

When I saw this little bundle of white fur, with the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen in a cat, I was hooked! When I picked him up and held him, he was mine.

I have so much admiration for this little creature who lives in the dark. I watch him as he wanders around the floor, testing with his long whiskers as to how far he is from objects, putting out his paw to feel if he is safe to go further. Despite his handicap, he bravely goes about his day,letting nothing hinder him in his inate curiosity, as in all cats.

He has given me a new outlook on life, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. There have been many days when I have been feeling sorry for myself, life has been too stressful, or so I tell myself, and I just want to pull up the bedcovers and hide, and then I see my little white furry friend, trying so hard to have a life, and not give in to his blindness. He has been an inspiration to me, his determination, his courage and his perseverance, are beyond words.




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Do you have a question?

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:45 pm

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I would like to ask anyone who reads my blog a question!!

I get asked many gardening questions over the years and hopefully I have helped people to make their gardens, just what they wanted.

I would like to start a site, that would allow people to ask me gardening questions, and I, hopefully, can answer them.
I just wanted your input into this idea before I get it going.

Please just click on my comment link, and let me know if you would enjoy participating or just reading the questions and answers.

thank you Mrs Greenthumb.

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Have you grown a Tree Peony??

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:38 pm

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Many people ask me about growing tree peonies and one lady told me she had bought 2 peonies in consecutive years and they never grew , she wanted advice,

Defining insanity, is doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting different results.!

After a winter in cold storage, no fine feeder roots are`left, so it is best to plant in the FALL, when roots get a chance to become established. You need to plant about 6 weeks before the ground freezes.

Tree peonies are usually grafted onto a piece of herbaceous peony root. The root helps the tree peony to get established, takes about 2-3 years.
Good growers will wait to sell a plant when it is on its own root, but some others who are not so reliable, may sell them at a discount price with the herbaceous root still attached.

This only leads to a poor plant and sometimes the original peony root will start to put up its own stems.

Plant your tree peony 10-15 inches deep in perfectly drained, slightly acidic soil with protection from the sun, during the hottest part of the day.

The real key to success with these gorgeous plants , is to plant them at the right time, in the fall!!

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Do your Pansies smile at you?

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 3:54 am

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When the winter winds blow and I am feeling completely dejected, I make myself feel better, by reading my seed catalogues.

Of all the pictures of flowers that I see, nothing makes me smile more than the pictures of Pansies!. They have such expressive faces, I feel that they are almost human and are smiling out of the pages at me. I know this sounds dillusional, but it makes me feel that spring MUST be around the corner.

I started trays of pansies in my basement some years ago, and to my delight they came on leaps and bounds, I had read that they had to be kept dark to germinate, and this did work. I was so proud of myself, as I had always thought that they would be hard to grow.

This euphoria did not last long!

My basement is not used as living quarters, as I live in a 120 yr old house, and the basement actually gives me the creeps!, but in order to have the right growing features for my seedlings, it was ideal.

I was not the only one to think this, oh! no, the mice that winter in the walls of the old basement, thought that I was being over generous, I was actually feeding them, with nice green shoots!
So, when I went down to check on my pansies, DISASTER! they were no longer there! All I had left were trays of earth that had been knocked over and were lying on the floor, not a pansy in sight!

So, I reverted back to visiting my garden center and buying trays of pansies to plant as soon as the weather co-operated.Pansies like cool temperatures and are perfect for early spring planting. They will bloom all summer, but do tend to get "leggy' so you must be very strict with yourself and cut them right back, and then you will get twice as many blooms as you had before, and they will continue to keep blooming into fall.

I could not imagine my garden without pansies, I still say that their faces smile at me as I go by, whether from the pages of the catalogues or the window boxes that they live in!.





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Make a String Thing!!

Category: Organic Tips for your Garden | Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 2:08 am

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I don't know about you, but I go through a lot of string in my garden in the summer and fall, as plants get too tall and need some help to stand up, so I have a " string thing' that really helps me to keep it tidy and clean.

If you have to buy the large cones of string, it can be costly, bulky and hard to handle, so why don't you give this idea a try!

Take a bleach bottle( empty of course) and cut a flap in the side large enough to put a cone of string in. Put the cone of string inside and thread the end of the string through the cap. Place a couple of pieces of Velcro on the flap that you cut open , so that it is easy to open and close.

Carry the " string thing" ( never did find a name for it !!) and pull out the string as needed through the cap. All the while the string stays dry and clean inside.

Squirrel Repellent.
Use an old spice jar with a perforated lid,fill it with cayenne pepper, sprinkle it around your young transplants to repel the squirrels, it not only works for that, but it also keeps squirrels off the bird feeders, and the birds don't seem to mind a bit!!!

I have read, that to keep deer away, you use human hair( I don't have enough to spare!) but if you do this, the hair lasts longer when it is sheltered from the weather by a cup.

Mrs Greenthumb.


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